James of Year 12 has just returned a new book so I bailed him up for a quick interview about his impressions of THE CRUEL PRINCE by HOLLY BLACK
What were the key themes and subject areas of this book?
Its a.. I wouldn’t say epic fantasy but it is very much of the fantasy genre. It focusses of faerie and one of the key themes it has is power and how to obtain it and the problems that arise when mortals try to live among the fey.
So it’s fairy people?
(laughs) Basically, it’s set in the world of Faerie, most of the creatures are one kind of fey creature or another, two of the main characters it focuses on are mortals who have been stolen as very young children from our world with their sister who is fey and have grown up in Faerie.
I understand that you read this rather quickly.. I think I loaned it to you three days ago! Do I take this as an endorsement?
Yes, I read it quickly, perhaps because I was avoiding the other things I should be doing, and staying up later than I should to finish it but yes I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in fantasy.
Some people might look at the cover and say, “oh it’s fairies it’s for girls” or might think with a title involving princes that it may be for younger readers…
Definitely not! There is swordplay in this, there are battles, there is death, there is killing. I wouldn’t recommend it for primary school kids but any student from Year 7 up would enjoy this book, if they like fantasy at all they will love it. It is very good.
